Category Archives: Religion

Post navigation

Remembering our co-sufferers

I’ve been thinking a lot about suffering – something that affects all of us in different ways. Some people suffer from illness, others from injustice, poverty, or any number of other causes, like being worried about the future.

Sometimes, suffering jolts you from a peaceful sleep. And just as the memory of your burden returns, so also does that pit in your stomach. Others wake up from physical pain. Still, others can’t sleep at all.

Suffering steals our minds and attention.

Nearly everyone suffers, at some level or another. Our own personal suffering may be far less than the suffering of others, who have different pains and worries. Yet, it is still suffering.

Our times of suffering allow us to re-connect with God in important ways—to trust God to pull us through.

When we suffer, I think it is helpful to remember the suffering of others. Our own suffering can remind us of the pain that others are going through. These are our co-sufferers. They include people who are suffering from struggling to make ends meet, losing a friend or family member, experiencing unemployment, being a victim of a crime or injustice, enduring illness.

My wife and I began reading the book of Ephesians yesterday – the next book in our daily reading through the New Testament.

In the first chapter, the writer says a few words about how he prays for this group of Christians (in Ephesus, a place in southwest Turkey).

In these few sentences are some valuable lessons about what to pray for, and how.

–He says that, when he prays, he always thanks God for the people to whom he was writing.

–He says that he prays that God will give them a spirit that will make them wise in the knowledge of God.

–He says that he prays that they will have greater understanding in their hearts; then they will know the hope that God has given to them.

–He says that he prays that they will know that the blessings God has promised to his holy people are big and beautiful. (Personal note: I don’t think of blessings as specifically material ones.)

–He says that he prays that this group will know that God’s power is great for those who believe.

I’d guess that Paul also prayed for many other things—their health and obedience to God, and so much more, probably.

But the phrases above, in particular, are what he emphasized in this passage.

So, here are my 6 takeaways:

1) In our prayers, it is important to be thankful for others.

2) It is good to ask God to give people a spirit that makes them wise.

3-4) It is valuable to pray that people will have more understanding; that will help them to know hope from God.

5-6) It is wise to consider the connection between our holiness and God’s blessings on, and God’s power for, us.

May Paul’s prayer be yours today. Here is the text, from Ephesians 1:15-19:

“That is why I always remember you in my prayers and always thank God for you. I have always done this since the time I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. I always pray to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ—to the glorious Father. I pray that he will give you a spirit that will make you wise in the knowledge of God—the knowledge that he has shown you. I pray that you will have greater understanding in your heart. Then you will know the hope that God has chosen to give us. I pray that you will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious. And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe.” (Version: ICB)

Why we should seek out what speaks to us

Sitting at an outdoor cafe in my neighborhood in Istanbul, I drank sparkling water and finished my online Turkish lesson, as a large, white street dog lay near my feet.

I perused Facebook and saw a live feed of a church service from a Church of God congregation I knew in the U.S.

In one song, the congregation sang the refrain, “Something more than my yesterdays, more than I had before…He gave me something worth living for!”

It had been so many years since I’d heard or thought of the song that I remembered the refrain incorrectly. I misunderstood it as asking God for something worth living for, not a song of praise for having already given it.

Hearing it as a request, the song spoke to me even more.

A few minutes later, they sang a song that dates back nearly 100 years, and one that I’d sung many times as a child and young adult. “No matter what happens he will care for me,” goes the refrain. I sang along quietly. My internet connection was poor, and the live feed paused more than it played. Once, it stopped just as the song leader stretched out his hand to get the congregation to hold the last word in the phrase, “And his mighty hand will enable me stand.”

What I heard was enough to remember. It was enough to be re-calibrated back to a better alignment with God, and myself, even if for a moment.

You see, in life, it’s easy to get off track. It’s easy to focus more on the here and now. It’s easy to forget what really matters most. In these circumstances, we need to be intentional about seeking out what speaks to us. We need, what I call, ‘re-calibrating experiences’ – moments when we are reminded of God (or, if you are not a person of faith, whatever is most meaningful to you).

A couple of years ago, my wife and I attended Holy Week services in our old neighborhood in England, at a church where chimes ring out each day from a tall bell tower. Inside, columns and arches frame each side of the nave, and a large, gold icon of the sitting, crowned Christ is painted on the wall high above the altar.

On Good Friday, a cross with the figure of Christ was placed in the center aisle. People lined up and knelt down, one-by-one, kissing it before returning to their seats. The next evening, we all stood outside around a lit campfire—the fire representing Christ’s victory over death and darkness. From this flame, a large Easter candle was lit, symbolizing the risen Christ, and we followed this candle, procession style, into the church for the Easter vigil.

“Elusive God, companion on the way, you walk behind, beside, beyond; you catch us unawares. Break through the disillusionment and despair clouding our vision, that with wide-eyed wonder, we may find our way and journey on as messengers of your good news.”

We Westerners enjoy many privileges. We drink clean water from the tap and can defecate in a toilet without paying a fee. Unless we travel abroad, we aren’t at risk of contracting malaria or any number of other diseases. We enjoy a great deal of freedom. Our human rights are protected. We know English as our native language. We have easy access to the Internet.

Every year on April 23, thousands of Turks board ferries and make their way to the largest island off the coast of Istanbul.

Many of them purchase a spool of colorful thread from vendors lining the cobblestone path to the top of a high peak, and they unravel the spool as they walk.

Interestingly, in a country that is 98% Muslim, those making the pilgrimage each year are walking towards a Christian monastery, named after St. George, that sits at the top of the mountain. When they get there, they hang charms in the trees of the churchyard.

Five times every day in the Middle East, the call to prayer rings out loudly from mosques all over the land. Loud speakers, attached to the mosques’ towers (called minarets), allow entire neighborhoods to hear the müezzin calling out the prayer from inside.

Often, you’ll hear a chorus of prayers from different mosques.

The prayer is in Arabic; this short video, shot while my wife and I were walking in a nearby park one evening last week, captures a short segment of it.

Inspiring Quotes

“But I would like to suggest that all of us, we and you alike, commit ourselves to retaining that split-screen world in which we hold our plans--our personal plans, our dreams, our abundant energies--always and in juxtaposition with the images that disturb us and call us to everyday responsibility.”
--Diana Eck

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness…Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
–Mark Twain

“As people of faith in something greater than ourselves, or as people who want to live meaningful lives with purpose, how do we propose to live? And what difference are we going to make?”
--David Hempton